Can anyone give me some advice?
I’v played the flute for years and just got hooked on the whistle and would like to learn. I’ve been researching sites for weeks trying to find just the right whistle.
I want a little more quality than a clarke range product and not quite ready to dish out the cash for a copeland. After getting good response from reviews i’ve settled on Mack Hoover’s whistles. I’m wondering what one to buy. I know D is recommended for beginners. Already playing the flute for years I should pick it up fairly quickly.
should i go D, low D, narrow bore, wide bore, what are the differences and what is a whitecap?
Thanks for any help you guys can provide.
Anne
You have made a good choice, Anne. IMHO, a good purchase for you would be one of Mack’s CPVC standard bore, tunable, high D whistles. Starting with a low D, even with your experience, could be a challenge, because of the distance between the tone holes. A standard D whitecap would also be a fine choice, at a less expensive price. This whistle is not tunable… A whitecap is Mack’s answer to mass produced, inexpensive whistles. It is usually brass, with a CPVC mouthpiece…It is a sweet, open, easy playing whistle, at a relatively low price… My older prototype whitecap will not allow cross-fingering of the C natural. One must half-hole that note. I do not know if his current whitecaps have this anomaly. It is not a handicap, simply a quality of some whistles, including some relatively expensive ones…
I believe in Mack’s instruments, and if you have any direct questions, please feel free to contact me, at my e-mail address.
Best to you.
Bill
Bill, I believe you can cross finger Cnat using OXXXXO.
Mack’s instruments are pretty much all lovely; he’s also a great guy - I’m sure that he would happily walk you through the diferences in his product line if you contacted him via email (listed on his website).
Hard to go wrong with the CPVC, but the whitecaps are nice too (not speaking from experience on the whitecaps, though I do play the CPVC and Brass), as are the brass… choices choices. Not sure you would have any regrets whichever way you went!
Having re-read your original post, I understand that that’s not much of an answer to your question 
Richard
Oops - forgot to mention; wouldn’t start with a low D if I were you, but start with a regular D - easier to play.
[ This Message was edited by: DrRichard on 2003-01-06 09:20 ]
Opinions - Everyone has one. And it all depends on the tone and quality you like.
I have mostly the inexpensive penny whistles -with inflation now closer to $10 to $15.
For starters - I would stick to the D vs. low D whistle.
Generation Whistles - I find have a more reedy sound. (brass - plastic mouth piece)
Susato’s Available in a set of three - single mouth piece -chiff and Fipple and three pipes - usually C and D and either E flat or B flat. bright tone. Plastic, very true key, very responsive, more sensitive to breath control, and getting fingers over holes for a good seal. (Plastic)
My favorite - a Mellow D Sudlum’s - more mellow tone, forgiving on breath control and fingering. Not tunable - mine is a little sharp. (brass - plastic mouth piece)
My Low D is a Cook - PVC plastic - tunable, flute like tone, perhaps less responsive than others - e.g. Overtones, easy to play re: don’t have to stretch for last hole (I use Piper’s techinque re: flat of finger vs. tip of finger. (PVC Pipe, mouth piece of plastic and wood, brass tube to couple mouth piece to whistle body) Very reasonable price as far as Low D whistles go.
Oak - my first nice tone, until I tried to make it tunable and melted the plastic mouth piece. Body is stainless steel.
A Hoover was the first somewhat expensive whistle I bought. I think it’s a super choice for you. I love mine, play it (them, now, actually just about every day. I know people say this doesn’t happen, but I swear that whistle improved my playing.
I’d also say high D. Why not start out with something that will allow you to play with others most easily, if you choose to? And sooner or later, you’ll kind of have to end up with a high D, so it won’t ever be the wrong decision.
Probably not narrow bore, unless you need an extremely quiet whistle. My regular bores take very little air; the narrow would take less. You might find the narrow bore difficult to play bc of the low air requirements. I have both a tuneable and nontuneable. The nontuneable seems to me to clog more easily. That’s also the older whistle, though, so it might be a matter of a design change that affects all his newer whistles.
I haven’t played a whitecap (yet – there’s one on my wishlist), so can’t say much about that. I also haven’t played one of Mack’s PVCs – but I’ve found that, for myself, I much prefer the sound and feel of brass. I’ve played both Water Whistles and Dixons and keep coming back to brass.
Good luck, and welcome to whistledom
Tery